The survey participants come from the car manufacturer and parts supplier industry (OEMs and 1-tier suppliers). 85% of the interviewees are in development and therefore actively involved in the product creation process.
The following is a brief summary of the results of the expert survey:
The topics Requirements management and Securing supplier communication are of particular interest. Virtual project collaboration platforms as well as Integration of virtual security processes belong more to the background in the daily business of the interviewees (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Relevant topics in the PCP According to the experts, the currently most important areas of action are the following (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Areas of action in the PCP A strong focus is on consistent documentation of requirements, consistent product configuration over the complete product lifecycle, as well as the transfer of parts lists and development results to the series production stage.
The survey participants confirm a trend in development strategy away from component orientation towards function orientation, driven not least by the increasing importance of software in products, and this can only be function-oriented.
Consistency and transparency in the PCP by the integration of the different departments within the company as well as by the integration of development partners is an essential success factor in the PCP. This integration can be controlled using efficient requirement and change management as well as an integrated PDM system.
According to most of the interviewees, virtual project collaboration platforms represent a meaningful documentation form in distributed developer teams, but do not offer sufficient options of suitable communication. Face-to-face is still the favored communication method for the discussion and solution of complex problems.
Early integration of product requirements in development, as well as the use of repeat parts and common parts, are important control levers in shortening the development time in the PCP. There is still a great need for action on this in many companies.
The topics Securing Supplier Communication and Requirements Management were rated with a relevance from important to very important by 95% of the interviewees.
Figure 3: Securing Supplier Communication
Due to the decreasing added value depth and the increased supplier integration exerted by it in production development and production, the security of supplier communication is becoming much more important. Against this background, the survey participants rate the topicality of change states and the completeness of conveyed date and status information with high relevance (Figure 3). In the context of supplier integration, the handling of know-how as well as its use and its protection is gaining appreciably in significance. Particularly with reference to product and process information as well as project management, these changes in the handling of information and suppliers become very clear.
We thank all participants for their kind cooperation.
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